Academic Technology Committee - DRAFT
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MINUTES OF MEETING: 9/07/12
Submitted Exec. Committee:
Submitted Academic Senate:
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APPROVED BY COMMITTEE: 11/02/12
Approved by Exec. Committee: __________
Approved by Academic Senate: __________
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ATC Members Present: Soheil Boroushaki, Jussi Eloranta, Helen Heinrich (chair), Sharlene
Katz, Gina Masequesmay, David Miller, Sydni Powell, Ron Saito, Chris Sales, Mary Schaffer,
Sally Spencer, Michael Sullivan; Excused: n/a; Absent: Isaiah Liu;
Executive Secretary: Hilary Baker, Recording Secretary: Jennifer De Iuliis;
Guests: Eric Garcia, Chris Olsen, Ben Quillian, Paul Schantz, Deone Zell
1) Introductions were provided by members and guests present.
2) Welcome – Executive Senate liaison to ATC (Eric Garcia)
Garcia explained his role is to sit in on the meetings and observe. He will share information
about resolutions, policies, or changes to existing policy with the Senate Executive
Committee.
3) Announcements – none
4) Approval of Minutes – The minutes from the May 4, 2012 meeting were approved.
5) Previous Meeting Action Item Review
Baker provided an update on items that were raised in the May meeting:
Thin Clients – Machines are now automatically set to log off instead of shutdown; the
machines are automatically started between 6-7am everyday to ensure that they are ready
when faculty arrive in the classroom.
Black boxes in Jacaranda Hall – The Classroom Technology Committee was informed of the
concerns with the black box equipment issues in Jacaranda Hall and Emil Henry, the
technical lead in ECS, is working to resolve these issues.
Accessible Materials – Masequesmay stated that she continues to have difficulties with
accessible materials and managing broken web links. Regarding accessibility, Baker
encouraged her to contact Sue Cullen on the best practices to ensure documents are ADA
compliant; Baker also offered to contact Cullen on her behalf. Baker also suggested that the
committee might consider inviting Sue Cullen to join a future ATC meeting.
Power Outlets – Masequesmay also mentioned that there are some issues with outlets not
working properly in Manzanita Hall, room 234.
Password Resets – Sullivan asked if the implementation was still moving forward that would
require faculty to reset their passwords at various intervals. Olsen confirmed that this
password resets for faculty is still planned for this semester; communications will be sent out
to faculty in advance.
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6) Chair’s Report
a. Joint meetings for 2012-2013 (ACAT and ERC)
Heinrich asked members to please review the dates listed at the bottom of the agenda
for the meeting schedule for the academic year. She noted that the two joint meetings
have been confirmed, ERC will join ATC on October 5, 2012 and ACAT will join
ATC on March 1, 2013.
b. ACAT & Faculty Senate updates
Heinrich attends ACAT and Faculty SenateC meetings in her role as ATC chair; the
first meeting has not yet occurred.
7) VP/CIO Report
Baker noted that the IT Survey 2012 Analysis will be posted to the IT website, once it is
made accessible; a summary of the survey analysis will be provided by Jerry Schutte at the
October ATC/ERC joint meeting. Baker will send the link to ATC members once the final
documents are posted.
a. What’s New in IT
Handout titled – What’s New in IT, Fall 2012
Baker highlighted some topics on the document – the new Digital Stories blog, new
Lynda.com training tool offered for all faculty and staff, Moodle enhancements,
Lecture Capture. She noted that Elizabeth Adams will be joining the meeting to
discuss Class waitlists later in the agenda. Spencer and Boroushaki shared that they
both had very positive experiences using Lynda.com and found the service useful.
Saito asked if students would gain access, Baker explained there is additional cost for
students to access the Lynda.com software.
b. eTexts (Zell)
All faculty should have received an email that called for participants to work on etexts. Zell explained that there are a few options available for creating and
customizing e-texts. The Academic Technology web page has a link to a request
form for interested participants. Priority is being given to faculty that teach high
enrollment courses and should be a part of the departmental goals of the college.
c. Course Redesign Institute (Zell)
Zell shared that 14 faculty members completed the course redesign institute program
which ran over the summer. The program was based on seven Quality in Online
Learning and Teaching (QOLT) principles, which are designed to provide a positive
experience for the students. The Faculty Technology Center plans to hold at least 1-2
Course Redesign Institutes next summer and post the materials from the summer
institute online as a self-paced format for faculty use.
8) Department/College Issues
Disability Resource Center – Miller expressed some concerns regarding the new online tool
which has a few issues, including emails containing links that do not work. Paul Schantz,
Director of Web and Technical Services in Student Affairs, will discuss further with Miller to
obtain more information on any issues; Schantz’s team built this application. Schantz also
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offered to join a future ATC meeting with a representative from the Disability Resource
Center to provide an overview of the new online tool.
Moodle – Saito asked whether it is possible to implement a restriction to only be allowed to
upload or download items in Moodle from on-campus. Zell stated that this has been raised
before; she will check whether this is an option to consider.
Teach Live – Spencer explained this is a new technology being used in Education. Teach
Live provides a virtual setting for teachers to practice teaching in front of students without
being in a real classroom. Testing was completed over the summer and Monday night it will
be used during a course. The program was developed in partnership by the University of
Central Florida and Lockheed Martin and they continue to run the program. The College of
Education submitted a grant and visited the facilities at UCF in order to be considered as a
participant (Northridge is one of 11 participating campuses). There are four trained people
working at UCF that administer the program, which costs $120 per hour. She noted that
most students are paying a lab-fee in order to off-set this expense. Spencer offered to
provide a demonstration at a future ATC meeting.
9) Discussion Topics
a. Waitlist (Elizabeth Adams)
Schaffer explained that the CTVA department in AMC had some concerns about the
new waitlist features. She had been informed that no priority was given to seniors and
that students could sue the university if the waitlist order was not followed. Adams
stated this was incorrect.
Adams explained that this was the initial roll-out this semester and issues are being
discussed for mitigation in future semesters.
The waitlist become active only after priority registration. If it had been turned on
sooner, the SOLAR system would have permitted systems to enroll over the 13 unit
cap to 16 unites. She noted that during priority registration, there are no restrictions
on the number of units seniors can take; therefore they had the first opportunity to
enroll in any class during this period. Schaffer stated she did ask some of the seniors
why they did not get their classes initially but they did not have any true explanation
and after priority registration period was complete, some stated they did not
understand the waitlist interface.
Sales mentioned that after open registration, the waitlist has no order of priority. His
department chair informed faculty to take the person at the top of the list, which was
a department policy. Adams stated that she was very clear in her communications to
the deans and department chairs that faculty have the right to use any order for
accepting students into a course (senior standing, overall standing, etc.). Miller shared
that he did receive this message from his department chair; he noted that the waitlist
worked well.
Adams stated that new sections opened based on data from the number of students on
waitlists for courses. Adams mentioned that she had asked departments to notify all
students on waitlists when additional classes were opened; she also showed the
department chairs how to do this via email. Students on a waitlist were not
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automatically added to a new class opening because the dates and/or times of a new
section may or may not match the needs of the student that was waitlisted for a course.
Adams noted that students were allowed to waitlist up to 10 units. She is willing to
present the idea of moving the cap from 13 units to 16 units to Provost’s Council to
gain feedback from the deans. She noted the 13 unit cap is in place so sophomores can
still get into courses they need.
Katz shared that the waitlist feature worked great in her college, although for the
courses that are pre-requisite-heavy students cannot get onto a waitlist.
Powell asked if the waitlist could include a “if then” statement. Adams said this
would likely be a heavy load on the SOLAR system. Adams mentioned that currently
2-part classes (lab/lecture) are unavailable for the waitlist feature and are now being
considered as an option for a waitlist enhancement.
Miller mentioned he felt as an initial roll-out, the waitlist went fairly well overall.
b. University Video Network
(Diane Stephens, Dean Arnold, Debbie Hellman)
Handout titled – Transmitting Videos to CSUN Classrooms, September 6, 2012
The Classroom Technology Committee has been discussing the video services
provided by the university in lecture rooms (VHS and analog). Hellman explained
that VHS equipment is no longer available for purchase and even obtaining parts to
repair equipment is difficult. As a result, the campus needs to consider new directions
for video services.
Arnold provided a handout that outlines the current video services available:
University Video Network (UVN), Video Furnace and Library Video Streaming
Databases (i.e. Films on Demand). Saito asked where to find this information.
Heinrich stated the title records are in the library catalog and Arnold added that a
search can be done via Films on Demand directly in this database found on the lefthand navigation of the library’s web page. Heinrich mentioned that encoding services
are available and there is a request form listed under music and media (most
major/feature films will ask for a licensing fee so this must be considered when
making a request). Arnold shared that the library was able to purchase some new
DVD’s (previously VHS) via funding from the Campus Quality Fee initiative.
Stephens explained that a communication piece to faculty will be sent and a transition
plan from VHS to these newer technologies (e.g. UVN, Video Furnace, Films on
Demand) is needed to outline a reasonable timeline. Masequesmay stated that many
of her colleagues use VHS and asked what the timeline might be. Stephens posed the
question to the committee and most agreed one year would work. Katz noted that not
all courses are taught each semester and therefore a year would be appropriate.
Hellman explained that the campus cable feed, which is currently analog needs to be
refreshed and IT will be looking at options available because tuning features are not
always available on DVD players. The Classroom Technology Committee is
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interested in knowing what channels faculty tune into most on the classroom
televisions. Baker suggested that these questions could be included in the IT annual
survey in spring 2013.
Garcia stated that having detailed explanations of the various services is important and
the implications of any copyright issues around encoding and transferring VHS tapes
to DVD format. He also noted that faculty will likely question whether students have
access to viewing videos outside of the classroom or campus and these details should
be included in the communication to faculty. Stephens said an initial draft
communication piece would be prepared for Hellenbrand, Baker, and Stover to review.
Department/College Issues (continued)
Note: Discussion returned to item number 8, which was not concluded when the guest
speaker arrived to discuss Waitlist.
Thin Clients – Miller has heard from a few colleagues that the absence of the U-drive on
these machines is problematic when trying to map to locations which are not saved. Olsen
stated that the team is aware of this concern and testing has been completed. This will be
available sometime in the next week.
Help Center – Miller mentioned that logging all requests via the help center ticketing
system has been very good. The service is good from the group of technicians that are
responding. Baker added that utilizing the ticketing system universally is a great benefit
to track data, which is important for IT and the college technical staff to review and
assess.
Walk-In Center – Schaffer noted that she has received positive feedback from students that
have visited the Oviatt walk-in center. Heinrich noted the services available are very
useful being located in the library lobby during the first weeks of class; the Library staff
receive technology inquiries and are able to direct students to the walk-in center.
Permission Numbers – Miller stated having shorter expiration dates on permission
numbers would push students to make decisions quicker instead of many that wait until
after a class fills up to utilize them. Baker asked if he has addressed this with his associate
dean; Baker also offered to mention this item to Elizabeth Adams.
10) Policy – none
11) New Business – none
Meeting adjourned at 3:05 PM.
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